Local 37 – Home Support, Guysborough County Union Applying for Conciliation

Your bargaining committee exchanged proposals with your employer on June 12th. Additional negotiations were delayed to this month at the request of your employer as they had hoped they would be in a position to respond to your monetary proposals. Unfortunately, your employer has informed us they are not in a position to do this and identified there is no point in negotiating at this time.

Therefore, the bargaining committee has decided to apply to the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education to request the assistance of a Conciliation Officer. According to the Trade Union Act, either a union or an employer can apply for conciliation when bargaining reaches an impasse. Although a Conciliation Officer cannot compel the union and the employer to reach a collective agreement, the process is a good mechanism for the parties to bargain more effectively. If conciliation is successful, a tentative agreement will be presented to the union members. If conciliation fails, the Conciliation Officer files a report with the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education, which triggers a fourteen-day countdown or cooling off period, after which a union may go on strike or an employer may lock the members out.

At this point, the bargaining committee remains optimistic that a new collective agreement may be achieved at conciliation.

Bargaining proposals will be mailed out to you shortly. If you believe the mailing address we have on file for you has changed, please contact us at 424-4063 (toll-free 1-877-556-7438) or inquiry@nsgeu.ca.

We will keep you updated with further developments. If you have any questions, please contact a member of your bargaining committee as follows: